What do bipolar disorder and obsessive disorder have in common? They are both illnesses that three authors gave to their characters to develop a great story. Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual changes in a person's mood, energy, and ability to function. Unlike the normal ups and downs that everyone goes through, the symptoms of bipolar disorder are severe. They can result in damaged relationships, poor work or school performance, and even suicide (Stoppler). Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) as an anxiety disorder. It is characterized by distressing and intrusive thoughts and/or repetitive actions that interfere with the individual's daily functioning. The DSM-IV criteria for OCD are as follows: The individual expresses obsessions or compulsions. Obsessions are defined by the following four criteria: Recurrent, persistent thoughts, impulses, or images are experienced at some time during the disorder as intrusive and inappropriate and cause marked anxiety and distress. Thoughts, impulses, or images are not simply concerns about real-life problems. The person tries to suppress or ignore such thoughts, impulses, or images or to neutralize them with some other thought or action. The person recognizes that the obsessive thoughts, impulses or images are a product of his or her mind (not imposed from outside as in thought insertion). Compulsions are defined by the following two criteria: the person feels driven to perform repetitive behaviors (e.g. washing hands, ordering, checking) or mental acts (e.g. praying, counting, repeating words silently) in response to an obsession or according to rules that must be strictly enforced. The behaviors or mental acts are aimed at preventing or reducing discomfort or preventing some feared event or situation; however, these behaviors or mental acts are not realistically connected to what they are intended to neutralize or prevent or are clearly excessive (PsychologyToday). Tennessee Williams' character Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire, Hamlet from William Shakespeare's Hamlet, and May from Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees all suffer from these two diseases in their own ways, such as lying and believing to their lies to escape reality, to lie and act crazy to seek revenge on another character and to get really angry about the world's problems and then start singing. Bipolar disorder is a brain disorder that causes unusual changes in a person's mood, energy, and ability to function..